splash

Chapter Twelve: One Last Drink

I woke up in a dark room and all I saw was just the table next to me and the chair I was sitting on for some reason. "Well, I'll be damned.... Wow... Just wow, you're an amazing old bastard. To re-freeze the pole? Only a crazy person would try to do something grandioze like that! Good to see you again after so long." A mysterious figure in the dark spoke to me and I immediately replied "Lucifer... I guess... So that means I'm- ", "Yes... Welcome to the place that everyone who sells his soul to me comes." Lucifer interrupted me. I leaned heavily on the chair and began to breathe slowly while scratching me beard. "So now I have a question for you, now that you know you have completely failed. Was it worth it?" Lucifer asked teasingly. I thought for a few moments about what he said and finally answered "I may have failed to freeze the pole but I did not completely fail. If Stir is still alive and if he decides to distribute the contents of the projector I brought him, I believe the people who will see all about the IceBreaker and what the crew has gone through and done for other people, they will receive hope and unite together to try to help this broken world. Who knows, maybe the slightest dent I made gave them a bit of time." Lucifer looked at me with a dismissive look and laughed. "For someone who's lost faith in humanity and wanted to do everything himself, you sure do have a lot of optimism, I must say."

I slowly re-arranged meself on the chair and straightened up, "I stopped recording on that projector since our previous meeting. This projector has always been a contingency plan of mine, but ever since I got the powers I abandoned it. When you're in the middle of the pole with no ship, you realize you probably won't get home... I guess hope is all I had left at that time, and I gave it to Stir." Lucifer got up for a few moments and started talking to a dim figure that appeared from behind. Lucifer sent it back and sat down again, "Sorry, sorry, business... You know how it is. If you were so worried you would not succeed and not return from your mission to freeze the pole, then why did you continue? You could have stayed with Stir and instead of abandoning him in the middle of the sea".

Lucifer looked at me judgmentally as he folded his hands, or hooves, depending on what second I looked at him. "You're right Lucifer. I could have stayed with him and I will not forgive meself for not staying with him, but even if the chances of success of me plan were particularly slim I wouldn't have given up on the plan. Even if it means giving up on stir and me life, as you've seen. All me life I cared for people. For others. Lucifer, that's all I know how to do." Lucifer looked at me with anger and confusion. He got up from his chair and smashed the table with a powerful slam. Fragments of wood flew everywhere. Some flew towards me and took hold of me palm but I felt no pain. I guess as a dead person I can not feel pain.

"A piece of shit like you says he only knows how to take care of others but leaves his most loyal friend to die in the wilderness? You fucker! If you ask me your journey sounds very selfish to me. He wanted to be a hero. He wanted to save the world. He wanted to sleep peacefully despite Eric's death by telling himself it was not for nothing. Just tell the truth old man. You did it for yourself!" Lucifer looked at me with his red eyes in a rage. I bowed me head in embarrassment, me eyesight faded from the tears that filled me eyes, but I could not feel them, "I am the villain of me story, I know that. From a young age I always cared for meself and me dad and I had to grow up fast. I never had time to do what I wanted. When the world began to deteriorate I realized something important. Every human being takes care of himself in this world so someone must stand up and sacrifice his private self for the benefit of others. You can call me a hypocrite but the world needed someone willing to sacrifice whatever it takes to be successful with this goal, and the fact that I do not feel the wood chips stuck in me hand does not mean it does not hurt me that I abandoned Stir." I told the furious devil.

The devil stood in front of me in silence as he closed his eyes and pulled out a pipe from thin air. He lit it with no fire. He exhaled heavy smoke from his mouth and it covered the room. Suddenly the smoke disappeared in an instant. I looked around and saw that the table was back to normal and the wood chips that were stuck in me hand were gone. Lucifer sat in his chair smoking the pipe and said in a sly, whispering voice "It's a hell of a gamble you're taking with Stir. It could very well be that your friend is lying dead at the bottom of the sea or that he was rescued and burned the projector of the person who abandoned him."

There was logic in his words and I gestured at him for a pipe to smoke to calm me nerves. Lucifer tapped his fingers, or tentacles, and suddenly a lit pipe appeared in me hand. I looked at Lucifer with a suspicious look and he presented a sly smile. I inhaled and then understood why he was smiling. I wasn't able to feel that either. "All me life I believed that one man alone can't do anything significant and from the moment I got the powers you brought me I believed that only I, the one with the power, could make a change. Recruiting a selfish public had never worked for me before, but now after meeting Exxon and me failed experience I believe that one person can motivate many people who together can make a difference and I believe that Stir also believes in it, if he is still alive."

Lucifer smiled. "What makes you think people will rush to save this lost world that even a man with magical powers from the devil has not managed to save?" I took another tasteless breath from the pipe and replied, "I did not put anything in the projector on me powers. As I told you, I abandoned the thing the day we met Lucifer. All there is to it is a group of people doing what they can to improve this gloomy situation and I believe it will encourage people. I admit it was a B plan I abandoned a long time ago but when a torpedo hits you in the face after you tried to smash it with ice and failed you reconnect back to old parts of you. Parts that were the things that talked you into doing this shit 40 years ago."

Lucifer took a big puff, the smoke coming out of his mouth spinning around him slowly and then being absorbed into the floor. I could swear I heard screaming noises coming out of the smoke. "Now I have a question for you Mr. Satan. Why did you give me these powers from the beginning?" Lucifer got up and went to get himself a glass of vodka from the dark and empty space, as if it was there all along. He walked slowly back to the table and said while holding the glass in his hand.

"very simple old man, I told you that last time.... You interested me. In such a lost world there are still people who do a lot to improve the situation and I was interested in what you would do if I gave you real power to influence. You stood by my expectations I must say. And now that I think about it, if the story of yours and that of your team caught my attention, maybe it CAN inspire hope in other people after all..."

"Do you know how Eric is doing?" I asked Lucifer apprehensively. Lucifer looked at me with a surprised look and sat back down at the table. "Sorry friend. Your friend is out of my jurisdiction". A small smile rose over me face when I heard that. I took another breath from the bland pipe and asked, "Do you know if Stir is alive or not?" "Obviously that I know." "But you're not going to tell?" Lucifer took a big sip of vodka, "obviously not... It will ruin the tension." I paused for a moment to digest the situation and then decided to listen to Stir's advice and asked the devil "Say, do you have a desert in this hell?." Lucifer smiled and for the first time, his face was perfectly clear. We both looked at each other and then Lucifer asked "Whiskey or vodka?" I grinned."Whiskey please".